A cheap unoccupied property insurance quote – questions and answers

Here are the answers to some commonly heard questions on the subject of the cheap unoccupied property insurance quote.

Is unoccupied property insurance obligatory?

No landlord insurance is obligatory in the sense that it is a legal requirement.

However, in some cases, a specific buy to let mortgage may require that you have buildings cover in place and that implies landlords insurance. You may, therefore, have a contractual obligation to ensure that your property is adequately covered in all circumstances.

If your property is likely to stand unoccupied for a period exceeding a specified number of days in the policy, then your standard let property insurance may become invalid and you may need a cheap unoccupied property insurance quote as the first stage in you maintaining your cover.

What is different about an unoccupied property?

In some respects, perhaps apparently very little is different. There is no reason to believe that an unoccupied property is, for example, more or less likely to be struck by lightning than one that is occupied.

Yet if you look at this in terms of the total risk profile, you may see that certain categories of risk may be more prevalent in cases where a property is unoccupied.

Perhaps the best examples are that such properties may be at greater risk of illegal entry or vandalism than those that are occupied, or more vulnerable to being damaged by something that goes unnoticed, such as a water leak.

In order to cover that changed risk profile, insurance providers have a specific unoccupied property policy.

Why are a number of days specified?

Insurance providers typically recognise that your property may stand unoccupied at times for short periods while tenants are coming and going etc. In such cases, your existing policy will remain valid for the number of days specified.

Does a cheap unoccupied property insurance quote offer better value?

It may or may not do.

It may always be advisable to consider the most important thing about insurance to be the cover, protection and reassurance it provides, rather than its price tag.

If you select a particularly low-cost empty property insurance policy that subsequently turns out to be inadequate for your needs, then you may discover the hard way that what is cheap for someone else may not prove to be cheap for you.

It would be wise to ensure that you have read the policy cover carefully before making a decision to purchase it. A good starting point would be to study very attentively the detail of your cheap unoccupied property insurance quote.